It was a few days before Christmas, about 3 ½ months after Robert and Kathy had first met. Dennis, Kathy’s cousin, was talking to Heston. They were exiting the Loews Kings movie theater where they had just seen Blazing Saddles. Dennis stopped telling fart jokes long enough to tell Heston that his family would be visiting his uncle Danny and aunt Kathleen for Christmas. They would drive down to Avon on Tuesday, December 24 and drive back late on December 25, after the Christmas dinner. The entire journey was about 100 miles roundtrip; 90 minutes each way because of Christmas traffic. Because the house in Avon wasn’t large enough to hold 4 guests, Dennis and his younger brother Davey would stay at a hotel a few blocks away from his relatives residence. Heston said to Dennis, “You know Robert is sweet on Kathy. Every once in a while he starts to talk about her. He gets this dreamy look. Then he realizes we will make fun of him if he goes any further, so he changes the subject.” Dennis responds, “A couple of times Robert asked me how Kathy was doing and did she ever mention him. I never get a chance to answer before he changes the subject. She did ask me about him once, about month ago. She said ‘by the way, how is your friend, that nice boy I met? I think his name was Ronald, or something like that.’ I said, ‘It’s Robert, Robert.’ Wise ass Kathy said ‘Robert, Robert, that’s a funny name’ and she changed the subject.” Heston, “Maybe you can invite Robert to go with you. He would probably be thrilled.”
That evening Dennis called Robert and invited him along. It took about 15 seconds for Robert to realize the invitation meant he would see Kathy. His heart began to beat, bump, bump, bump. He was outwardly cool, or so he thought, when he told Dennis, “anything to help out a good friend.” From the tone of Robert’s voice Dennis knew he would be able to ask Robert to do anything for him for at least the next six months. Remember, Dennis did have an IQ of 172.
On the morning of December 24, the Brooklyn Smith family, plus Robert, drive down to the New Jersey shore to visit with their relatives, the Smith family in Avon. When they arrive at the residence, a little after 12pm, they are greeted by uncle Danny who loudly welcomes everyone at the front door. Aunt Kathleen, and Kathy’s two sisters, 15 year old Dee and 9 year old Donna come to the door. Dee sees Robert and says in a loud sing-song voice, “hi, Robert” and smirks. Kathy, in the other room, can’t quite make out what younger sister Dee said. She comes out to greet everyone. She sees Robert and is first confused. She doesn’t recognize him for about three seconds. Then he registers with her and she breaks out in this tremendous grin. Robert sees this and he breaks out in a tremendous grin. They stand there grinning at each other for several seconds and everyone is looking at them and chuckling sort of quietly to themselves. Except for Dee who is laughing out loud and little Donna who is totally besides herself and holding her sides as she is laughing uproariously. Kathy and Robert are now totally embarrassed; their grins stop and are replaced by what they both think is a distant look, but they ain’t fooling anyone. All the other chuckles and laughing stop to save Kathy and Robert from further embarrassment. That whole episode at the front door at the Smith residence in Avon took less than 15 seconds but it would be remembered fondly for decades.